SAN DIEGO, Sept. 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crown Bioscience, a global drug discovery and development services company providing translational platforms to advance oncology, inflammation, cardiovascular and metabolic disease research, has completed a joint study with CARsgen Therapeutics and Shanghai Cancer Institute, demonstrating the elimination of gastric tumors in mice using CLDN18.2 targeting CAR-T cells. The work was recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer and has a less than 10% five-year survival rate globally, largely due to lack of early detection. Surgery remains the only option for many late stage stomach cancers. Development of new treatments is critical for improving survival at late stage. Immunotherapy could be a promising treatment and this publication discusses these advances in preclinical models.

CAR-T cells were engineered to target Claudin18.2 and tested in gastric adenocarcinoma PDX models expressing high levels of Claudin 18.2. These are the most translatable preclinical models currently available, directly derived from patient tissue and reflecting the heterogeneity seen in patient populations.

“Humanized antibodies were developed and tested for their ability to redirect CAR-T cells on our PDX models. Tumor elimination was observed with no deleterious effect on normal gastric tissue in the mice, further validating it as high value CAR-T target and demonstrating a promising result for gastric and other CLDN18.2 positive tumors,” said Dr. Henry Li, also a co-author on the paper and Senior VP of Research and Innovation at Crown Bioscience. "We are very excited to see the successful establishment of these relevant disease models for evaluating new CAR-T therapies, as testified by this peer-reviewed high-impact scientific journal.”

“At CrownBio we have dedicated significant efforts to the development of these models,” said Jean-Pierre Wery, CEO of Crown Bioscience. “Immunotherapy holds significant promise for improving cancer outcomes and we look forward to working with our partners on improved in vivo efficacy studies.”

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